TAPP Provides Comments to Senate HELP Committee on 340B Drug Pricing Integrity and Affordability for Patients Act
The Trade Alliance to Promote Prosperity today provided comments to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions at the request of Chairman Bill Cassidy on the 340B Drug Pricing Integrity and Affordability for Patients Act.
In part, TAPP wrote, “Your discussion draft is the product of years of careful oversight, including an investigation into how covered entities generate and use 340B revenue, a HELP Committee hearing examining the program, and an ongoing investigation into the 340B Prime Vendor Program. That work has identified significant transparency and oversight concerns that can prevent 340B discounts from translating into better access and lower costs for patients.”
TAPP’s comments focused on these objectives:
Put Patients Back at the Center of 340B
Bring Transparency and Accountability to an Opaque Program
Address Contract Pharmacies and Middlemen
Prevent Duplicate Discounts and Strengthen Program Integrity
Clarify Eligibility and Stop Gaming
TAPP also wrote, “Some will characterize greater transparency and stronger oversight as attacks on 340B. TAPP believes precisely the opposite. The 340B program was created for a legitimate purpose, and many safety-net providers depend on it to serve vulnerable communities. TAPP has consistently emphasized that the answer is not to eliminate the program. The answer is to reform it so that it once again consistently serves its intended beneficiaries… Your discussion draft addresses these challenges directly. Its four overarching objectives—to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse; ensure benefits reach low-income and uninsured patients; provide regulatory clarity to prevent gaming; and put the program on a sustainable path toward lower health care costs—are exactly the right framework for congressional action.”